Gegger

Wait, it's GDR Riley? I've been calling him GDPR Riley this entire time.
I thought he just really liked privacy.

😱 I'm fun?
 
Also technically Paul is a Sr. mod so he gets the Sr. discount 

I lock this thread, when I want, for whatever reason

Stop spamming pointless posts. If you don't have anything to say don't post.

Oh hey, someone turned on ✨Premium✨ member access only

The entire history of mankind. In less than 3 minutes
 
I got you fam.
 

Kitty likes Corsair quality 

And now for your yearly PSA:
 
If you are folding full-time please remember to check your power cords, plugs and outlets every few months, say when you take your systems off-line to clean the dust filters.
 
I discovered this recently:

 
This was the outlet that feeds an 14/3 extension cord which, in turn, feeds the UPSes for 2 of my Folding systems and another UPS that Feeds my TrueNAS, ESXI Server and primary 24-port Gigabit switch. They, in turn, only draw about 1050W out of the 1800W capacity of the circuit. The damage you see here was caused by arcing due to a poor connection between the "hot" blade of the extension cord's plug and the receptacle. Fortunately I was warned of the issue by the Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) tripping.
 
This GFCI was in the ceiling of the un-finished portion of my basement and was installed in-line to retrofit an outlet into the Powder Room (Water Closet for you Brits) in the basement. It was installed about 20 years ago and replaced once about 15 years ago after damage due to a close lightning strike to the house.
 
The solution was to replace the combination outlet and switch in the Powder Room with a combination GFCI Outlet and Switch which are now available. The GFCI outlet that was in the ceiling was replaced with a "Commercial Grade" outlet which, unlike Standard Grade outlets, are actually designed to keep a tight grip on the plugs for many years and to not be replaced every 5-10 years.
 
While I was at it I also replaced the two duplex receptacles at the other end of the extension cord with Commercial Grade ones.

I've unhidden @Spotty's summary of the changes a couple of posts up. There are no changes here in what we will be enforcing, just making our current policies more explicit.

Changelog:
Removed note about contacting forum support for account deletion. Account deletion can now be done through Account Settings Added rule regarding posting the same topic multiple times (previously enforced but not specified in CS) Added rule regarding bypassing work/school device restrictions, parental controls, and security software (previously enforced but not specified in CS) Reworded the rule regarding sharing social media channels (twitch, youtube, etc) Reworded the rule regarding advertising third party classifieds listings (ebay, craigslist, etc) Added obscene content to the no pornography or sexually explicit rule to cover any offensive content that may not have already been covered (gore, etc) Moved rule regarding illegal content to its own rule (previously included with no pornography or sexually explicit content) General formatting changes to make it easier to read

I thought hacking was when you used more than 1 finger to type?

Nope, what I expect is mature and civil conversation. I also expect younger members to aspire to become able to have levels of suitable conversation in the forum. Conversation will show age, ignorance, wisdom, knowledge, and many other things. Knowing this and accepting that other younger and sometimes older develop these skills takes time, recognizing this shows patience, understanding, maturity and wisdom. Something I see lacking from certain members these days that ought to know better.
 
And I agree 100% with what @Spotty said. 
 
*edit
Lastly if you have an issue with how the Forum is run and how Moderation is done, our Admins are able to take your concerns into consideration.

To be frank this comes across as seeking justification for being a dick towards people who may not meet your own personal posting standards - be it posting discussions you aren't interested in, questions you feel are redundant or unnecessary, or using incorrect grammar.
 
This isn't your playground either. You don't get to dictate the posting standards others have to follow.
 
There's thousands of people who use this forum every day. Everyone is going to be a little bit different, have different interests, and different posting styles. I can guarantee that there will be topics that not everyone will be interested in, and there will even be low effort posts that you may not want to participate in (threads titled "help" or posts that just say "see title" are good examples). Just because those posts do not meet your own personal standards does not mean that others aren't interested in participating. The best thing to do is simply move on and find something that does interest you which you do want to participate in.
 
If you go around chastising people for their grammar or the quality of their posts then you're just being a dick. You're not teaching anyone a lesson or whatever you may think it is you are doing but rather just setting a poor example of behaviour yourself and causing further disruptions to the discussion making it even more difficult for a serious and productive discussion to take place. If someone who is willing and able to help sees the thread but it's just full of people bickering over grammar or posting standards then they're probably not going to want to get involved and caught up in all that unnecessary drama.
From a moderation standpoint if there is actually a problem that we feel we need to address then please report the post and allow the moderation team to handle it. It becomes much more difficult for us to get a positive resolution when other people jump in and start backseating or criticising. It puts people on the defensive and makes it much more difficult for us to have a conversation with them because instead of listening to what we have to say they are simply focused on "but what about that asshole that was being a dick in my thread!". Not only that, but most minor issues can be dealt with by the moderation team very quickly and easily, for example dealing with posts in the wrong subforum can be dealt with in a matter of seconds, however once you add in people arguing and causing further issues it becomes quite labour intensive to deal with.

Hey there.
🤔
I'm reading a dissonance between your expectations of a forum / a forum member, and LTTF's expectations (Community Standards), which -- no judgement on my part -- is perfectly acceptable. If you're dissatisfied with the forum / another person's usage of the forum, an idea would be to change either your expectations of LTTF / its members, or to suggest a more widespread change in the Forum Suggestions (no harm in a polite request).
 
LTTF, to me, has always prioritized being inclusive. In more explicit wording -- the original intent is being respectful to each other, regardless of their background or how they wish to use / communicate on the forums.
 
Accurate grammar isn't a strict requirement. And I believe some members treat forum threads like Discord, and Status Updates like Twitter. Though some (including myself) might perceive this sort of attitude / content as meaningless or uninspired, so long as the response is coherent enough, there's no grevious harm done on any other forum member. And users are always free to ignore content they'd rather not see, whether through Ignore Users or simply by not responding to or entertaining inane messages.
 
As for explicitly calling out / shaming people; my understanding is that LTTF prefers to handle troublemakers and CS violators in an orderly and tactful manner. High-key cancel culture shames not only the finger-pointer, but also reflects on the forum as a whole (e.g. that community of jerks), incites more discord (Group A accusing the person vs. Group B defending the person), and runs a little contrary to LTTF's inclusive environment. If a forum member is being particularly volatile, reporting their messages and letting the Mods discuss it between their team and to handle the incident is always an option. Or, if you'd like to present more info / your opinion, or to correct someone else's statement, there's always a way to word your response in a non-aggressive, neutral tone.
 
I'd suggest tempering your expectations of the forum and its members, if you wish to keep your experience here relatively enjoyable.
Feel free to shun my opinion / advice, however. 😁

Eesti!
 
That's Estonia, seems like a nice smol country with history that many people don't seem to know exists.
 
Japan, mostly cos of the food and traditional culture (not too into anime to be honest).

Eesti!
 
That's Estonia, seems like a nice smol country with history that many people don't seem to know exists.
 
Japan, mostly cos of the food and traditional culture (not too into anime to be honest).

Not surprising at all.
 
I don't like that my school can monitor my correspondence, however I realise that I do not have any legal standing when it comes to privacy on a school device. The software my district uses has a tool that they may have enabled (have no idea) that screens for search terms related to self-harm, suicide, etc. I am very aware that the IT dept. can monitor my activities, not so sure about my classmates but surely high school students know...actually you never know. I have spoken to some classmates that share the opinion that snooping in messages or emails is unwanted, and some have paranoia about their internet activity related to LGBTQ+ may out them to parents that are unaccepting. Legally I may have no real right to privacy on this device, but my school has done a terrible job of informing students about their "privacy rights".

Apologies if the following is discombobulated and hard to understand because writing for other people is not my strong point.
 
All of the obvious technical stuff is covered already, so I won't bother you with that.
 
Speaking as a high school student that still tries to bypass things but still (usually) knows when to stop, remove the computer. I get that now in these times that using a computer is probably very necessary for school, if that's the case, I would sit behind your son (probably not literally right behind, maybe on the other side of the room) when he is using the computer, put the computer away. Make him do assignments on only paper if teachers will allow it (mine do, often have to scan it and upload it to the online classroom tool). Make him do schoolwork in a place where computer access is limited (for me, that could be the public library) and keep an eye on him. 
 
I am curious as to when this issue started/became prevalent. My grades/motivation to do assignments dropped off a lot when my district moved to online schooling in March 2020. Even when it was Zoom calls motivation was hard. I would say part of this reason was that I had very little contact with school peers. I'm not sure about your current situation or if your son is in in-person or online or hybrid schooling or some other arrangement, but maybe see if the school has clubs or similar things to offer? If there is, let him choose something that he is interested in and perhaps that will occupy some of his time and make some closer school friends. Now that my district is back to fully in-person school I have peers that actually know what situation and whatnot we are in, and I would say my grades and mental health have improved.
 
I can say that I rarely tell anyone about mental health problems or things like that partly because of the thoughts that were fed to me when I was younger, where mental health "didn't exist" and I quote, "therapist is bullshit". The other part is that I didn't trust anyone to not tell others. I'm just going to assume you don't foster those ideas, but lack of trust may be an issue here. It may be gradual, but family interaction is harder to get these days, play some board games or do something both of you at least somewhat enjoy. After some time he may tell you what he actually thinks.
 
Personally I spend a lot of time online with strangers (this forum, MMORPGs, etc), I feel that it has made me more mature and I have learnt more about the world. Of course, I know to exercise precaution, especially if someone approaches me randomly in private messages on a platform that does not have a "quick report" feature. I realise that your son may not have the insight to do so yet but I would still be more open to the Roblox "friend". Could be harmless, obviously have some skepticism.
 
Clearly he has lots of potential and skills, just is using it in the wrong way. I hope you can get him turned around before he gets to a point where stopping is even harder. 🙂

Apologies if the following is discombobulated and hard to understand because writing for other people is not my strong point.
 
All of the obvious technical stuff is covered already, so I won't bother you with that.
 
Speaking as a high school student that still tries to bypass things but still (usually) knows when to stop, remove the computer. I get that now in these times that using a computer is probably very necessary for school, if that's the case, I would sit behind your son (probably not literally right behind, maybe on the other side of the room) when he is using the computer, put the computer away. Make him do assignments on only paper if teachers will allow it (mine do, often have to scan it and upload it to the online classroom tool). Make him do schoolwork in a place where computer access is limited (for me, that could be the public library) and keep an eye on him. 
 
I am curious as to when this issue started/became prevalent. My grades/motivation to do assignments dropped off a lot when my district moved to online schooling in March 2020. Even when it was Zoom calls motivation was hard. I would say part of this reason was that I had very little contact with school peers. I'm not sure about your current situation or if your son is in in-person or online or hybrid schooling or some other arrangement, but maybe see if the school has clubs or similar things to offer? If there is, let him choose something that he is interested in and perhaps that will occupy some of his time and make some closer school friends. Now that my district is back to fully in-person school I have peers that actually know what situation and whatnot we are in, and I would say my grades and mental health have improved.
 
I can say that I rarely tell anyone about mental health problems or things like that partly because of the thoughts that were fed to me when I was younger, where mental health "didn't exist" and I quote, "therapist is bullshit". The other part is that I didn't trust anyone to not tell others. I'm just going to assume you don't foster those ideas, but lack of trust may be an issue here. It may be gradual, but family interaction is harder to get these days, play some board games or do something both of you at least somewhat enjoy. After some time he may tell you what he actually thinks.
 
Personally I spend a lot of time online with strangers (this forum, MMORPGs, etc), I feel that it has made me more mature and I have learnt more about the world. Of course, I know to exercise precaution, especially if someone approaches me randomly in private messages on a platform that does not have a "quick report" feature. I realise that your son may not have the insight to do so yet but I would still be more open to the Roblox "friend". Could be harmless, obviously have some skepticism.
 
Clearly he has lots of potential and skills, just is using it in the wrong way. I hope you can get him turned around before he gets to a point where stopping is even harder. 🙂

Apologies if the following is discombobulated and hard to understand because writing for other people is not my strong point.
 
All of the obvious technical stuff is covered already, so I won't bother you with that.
 
Speaking as a high school student that still tries to bypass things but still (usually) knows when to stop, remove the computer. I get that now in these times that using a computer is probably very necessary for school, if that's the case, I would sit behind your son (probably not literally right behind, maybe on the other side of the room) when he is using the computer, put the computer away. Make him do assignments on only paper if teachers will allow it (mine do, often have to scan it and upload it to the online classroom tool). Make him do schoolwork in a place where computer access is limited (for me, that could be the public library) and keep an eye on him. 
 
I am curious as to when this issue started/became prevalent. My grades/motivation to do assignments dropped off a lot when my district moved to online schooling in March 2020. Even when it was Zoom calls motivation was hard. I would say part of this reason was that I had very little contact with school peers. I'm not sure about your current situation or if your son is in in-person or online or hybrid schooling or some other arrangement, but maybe see if the school has clubs or similar things to offer? If there is, let him choose something that he is interested in and perhaps that will occupy some of his time and make some closer school friends. Now that my district is back to fully in-person school I have peers that actually know what situation and whatnot we are in, and I would say my grades and mental health have improved.
 
I can say that I rarely tell anyone about mental health problems or things like that partly because of the thoughts that were fed to me when I was younger, where mental health "didn't exist" and I quote, "therapist is bullshit". The other part is that I didn't trust anyone to not tell others. I'm just going to assume you don't foster those ideas, but lack of trust may be an issue here. It may be gradual, but family interaction is harder to get these days, play some board games or do something both of you at least somewhat enjoy. After some time he may tell you what he actually thinks.
 
Personally I spend a lot of time online with strangers (this forum, MMORPGs, etc), I feel that it has made me more mature and I have learnt more about the world. Of course, I know to exercise precaution, especially if someone approaches me randomly in private messages on a platform that does not have a "quick report" feature. I realise that your son may not have the insight to do so yet but I would still be more open to the Roblox "friend". Could be harmless, obviously have some skepticism.
 
Clearly he has lots of potential and skills, just is using it in the wrong way. I hope you can get him turned around before he gets to a point where stopping is even harder. 🙂

So All the practical stuff has been said already, bios password, reduce physical access, wifi access etc, and ofc just watching when in use. But as a parent of 5, I feel obligated for the kids sake to ask what specific problems you have. 
From what you've said, the main issues are wasting time instead of school and talking to a girl online. 
 
Starting with the latter, a girl being foreign isn't necessarily an issue, she could be a groomer or she could be a lovely young girl just playing roblox and found a dude she vibes with. A young girl in the same school can be just as bad an influence as you're expecting this girl to be. Have you seen any of the actual interactions between the two? Has something been said or done that implies this going in a bad direction? I'm assuming from the main audience of roblox we're talking elementary/preteen. I skimmed the posts above, maybe I missed the age, but there's nothing inherently wrong with having a foreign penpal at a young age. As long as the interactions are appropriate for the age, it could even be a good thing. 
 
Moving to the school and the laptop, You need to split these issues. On the one hand you need to address the grades. But on the other hand, don't assume the gaming or the girl is the issue. They could be symptoms of a larger issue. From a brief read I can't assume too much, but does he have ADHD and have an issue with motivation or focus maybe? Does he not feel challenged at school and feels gaming and social interaction are more interesting? I don't know the situation but I'm trying to think of anything besides assuming he's a wayward kid that just assumes he's too cool for school or some crap like that. I avoid that for their sake and yours, because if he truly just doesn't care at all and has no troubles making it harder for him to do well, then that falls back to how he was raised. A well raised kid should have some semblance of work ethic, responsibility, and caring. If we assume better and there's some roadblock, maybe he doesn't even realize, then you need to be in touch with all the teachers and the guidance counselor immediately. Reach out and ask how he is in class, does he try in class and then just come home and turn into a couch potato? Is he doing his hw and failing tests or passing tests but ignoring hw? There's a lot of questions to ask, and he might need to talk with a therapist. From a short post there are simply too many things I don't know, but you should be open for anything, adhd, bullying, social issues, etc. Don't focus on the bad grades themselves, focus on getting connected back to him on an emotional level where he feels comfortable telling you, or maybe someone else, why he's acting like this. 
 
The laptop, your actual question, is a bit easier. You need to remove it. Regardless of anything happening, adhd, bullying whatever it is, you need to make it clear to him, that wiping the computer to avoid your rules is NOT ok. That needs to be a hard boundary. Maybe you need to change the rules, be more open to his interests and activities, IDK that depends on the situation. But it needs to be made clear that his response is not ok. maybe he does it at home and you yell at him. Or maybe he tries and avoids a block on a school computer and gets seriously in trouble. You need to set a boundary that you can talk about the rules, you can work with him on grades, but it is completely unacceptable for him to blatantly disobey you and wipe the computer when he doesn't get his way. If he feels that's his only way to handle this situation, there's a problem. It might be with you, him, or both, but there is a problem already there. The kid has shown an aptitude for computers (or googling at least) along with some form of apathy towards school and rules. I don't wanna assume the worst, but you can't rule out the possibility that he gets in deeper trouble trying this crap somewhere else with a computer that isn't his.

Overall remove the computer, except during supervised homework or free times, for the moment. Communicate with the school and narrow down any developmental or social issues that might be impeding his performance. This girl on Roblox is the least of your worries if she's even a worry at all. Above all make sure throughout whatever process you go through, keep reinforcing he's not some broken thing out of line that you have to fix, he's your son and you love him no matter what. But you can't stand by and passively participate in his misbehavior by doing nothing. You love him too much to let him fail through all of school and end up a deadbeat doing manual labor for barely over minimum wage. He's obviously smart and has real potential. you just want to make sure he uses it and becomes the amazing kid you know he can be. 

Banned for not being signed up to folding month yet
 
 

LTT Folding Month 2021
 
Event Starts November 8th (00:00 GMT)
Ends December 12th (23:59 GMT)
 
 
Sign up for the event here:
Sign ups will close November 6th, 00:00 GMT
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Tu-7zVK93OBIT30FdPMkyK9yUqLok7moeQ7D4aPOIDc
 
 
This event will be eligible for F@H event badges.
 
  
 
Please follow this thread to keep up to date!
 
Please read the whole of this post before asking any questions and use the links provided at the end for help and support!
 
 
Minimum Participation Requirements For Prizes
20 Days with activity*, 500,000 Points & 40 WU
(*activity is defined as completing at least 1WU for the 24 hour period)
These must be met DURING the five weeks of the event. Points produced before the start date do not count!
 
 
Prizes!!!
(possibly more to come)
Community donated prizes:
5x 10GBP Steam gift cards - Donated by @marknd59
2x 20USD Steam gift cards - Donated by @Jawa_Juice
3x 20USD Steam gift cards - Donated by @Pezui
50USD Amazon gift card - Donated by Anon
4x 50USD Amazon gift cards - Donated by @IkeaGnome
5x random Steam key - Donated by Community Chest
 
LMG Prizes?
 
If anyone would like to donate a prize then hit me up on discord or on PMs here and we will sort it out
 
 
Folding@home is a network of volunteer computers distributed around the world that aims to perform biomedical research with the single intent of helping to further understand and develop cures for a range of diseases such as; Alzheimer's, cancer, and Parkinson's. The exact research that is done is simulating the 'folding' of proteins in the body, this is important because the function of a protein id directly related to its physical shape. And this, when the protein is created in the body it needs to reshuffle its shape to get into the correct structure to perform its task. Many illnesses can be linked to faulty proteins in the body such as many cancers and neurological issues, along with a wide number of other general health concerns. This network if compared with the TOP500 list of supercomputers would outclass every single entry on the list, Folding@home has been of the fastest computing systems in the world, reaching a speed of over 2.1 petaFLOPS. 
 
If you are wondering what exactly has been done with all this computing power then you can check out the papers written by the scientists and researchers that use the folding network, I will warn you though many of them are very in depth reads and in turn this means they are often fairly technical.
https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/
 
To qualify for badges you must meet the minimum requirements for participation which for this event will be as follows minimum requirements: 500k points, 40WUs, and 20 days of activity over the course of the whole month. This is subject to change for future events as we find out what the sweet spot is to include as many people as possible but not make it too easy to just get a free badge. 
 
PASSKEYS! (they're really important)
 
Don't forget to get yourself a passkey from the link below to ensure that you hit the points requirement, the passkey is a feature that was added a while ago to the Folding Client that helps to authenticate each user on the network, an added bonus of this is the fact that it allows you to qualify for QRB(Quick Return Bonus) Points, QRBs are extra points you earn for submitting work units more quickly, such as if you have faster hardware or let the client fold full time, rather than on idle. QRB credit is awarded after 10 WUs have been submitted. You can get your passkey from the link below.
https://apps.foldingathome.org/getpasskey
 
RULES
Please remember that this is the first event that will be governed by the new rules, these rules were first discussed at the end of last folding month and will be in effect for the duration of the event.
 
Failing to meet the minimum requirements.
 
Publicly discussing the administration of the event;
If you have an issue with the way in which the event is being conducted please reach out to an appropriate member of the event team.
 
Signing up to the event with a folding identity that is believed to not be your own.
 
Signing up to the event with more than one folding identity.
 
Conducting yourself in a manner that is believed to be not in the spirit of the event, this includes but not limited to the below;
purposefully only meeting the minimum requirements, acting to undermine the integrity of the event, to attempt to cause division within the community. 
 
Breaking any one of these rules will result in a disqualification from the event. It is also important to know that there is no appeal process for disqualifications. 
 
 
 
This is just a PSA for the new guys here, the folding team is a small close knit community, so here's a few things I'd like you all to keep in mind. It doesn't hurt to say thank you, if someone has genuinely helped you out don't forget to drop a reaction on their posts, help others where ever you can and finally we are a team first and always. 
 
Check your stats out here! Bare in mind it can take some time for your first WUs to appear so leave it a day or two.
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/search.php
 
Please follow the guides below to help with set-up and troubleshooting.
 
 
 
 

📌